THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



275 



settle down for the night. I watched 

 them collect, first one, then a second, 

 each feehng round for a place to rest 

 on a long, bare, drooping tendril of the 

 creeper. When two or three had 

 settled, others began to gather faster, 

 and, several arriving from various 

 directions almost simultaneously, the 

 vacant spaces were soon filled. One 

 feeling himself jostled threw out all his 

 six legs at once and began to wave them, 

 in unison, to and fro, and yet he retained 

 his position in a most miraculous man- 

 ner. Soon another was doing the same, 

 and yet another, without apparent 

 support, was beating the air. 



With a twig I touched all those at 

 rest and had every one doing the trick. 

 It was then I found that this bee did 

 not cling by his claws at all : his legs fell 

 together beside the thorax in the same 

 position as they occupied just before 

 he emerged from his cocoon, and all the 

 support he had was secured by the 

 mandibles. No matter how one held 

 liim when asleep, head up, head down, 

 or in a horizontal position, his body 

 still lay parallel to, but not touching, 

 the object to which he attached him- 

 self, as. gripping by his jaws, he fell to 

 slumber. 



" A Bush Cinema," By "Te Whare,"" 

 Sydney, 1923. 

 This interesting booklet contains 

 many interesting natural history notes 

 and illustrations, mostly from original 

 photographs. Much of the matter has 

 already appeared in the "Aboriginal- 

 ities ■■ column of the '" Bulletin," in the 

 " Sydney Mail '" and in '" Smith's 

 Weekly." Nature lovers will be glad to 

 have these scattered notes collected in 

 a handy form. Our copy from H. Y. 

 Edwards, Bega. 



There was recently issued a report 

 by Miss Mary J. Rathbun, of the U. S. 

 National Museum, Washington, D.C., 

 U.S.A., upon a portion of the Decapod 

 Crustacea dredged by the late F. I. S. 

 "Endeavour." The report forms vol. 

 V. part 3 of " The Biological Results 

 of the Fishing Experiments carried on 

 bv the F. I. S. ' Endeavour,' 1909-14." 



These rei)orts are issued by the Com- 

 monwealth Department of Trade and 

 Customs, but their production is super- 

 vised by the Australian Museum. As 

 an illustration of one of the Museum's 

 activities it may be noted that the 

 suggestion to collect the valuable 

 material being dredged whilst ex2)loring 

 for fishing grounds, and to submit it to 

 leading authorities for elucidation em- 

 anated from here. These authorities, 

 without remuneration, willingly gave 

 their labors in the cause of science, the 

 advance of knowledge being their sole 

 reward. Some thousands of si>ecimens 

 were collected upon these trawling 

 cruises, many for the first time. These 

 were all sorted and primarily classified 

 here before being despatched to the 

 various specialists. Rarely has a con- 

 tinent had such an opportunity to have 

 its pelagic, or deep sea, fauna so 

 thoroughly investigated at such low 

 cost. 



